Symbols on the Chart: a Thought for the Three Weeks and Parashat Devarim

Jews gather on the evening of the Ninth of Av, to read the Book
of Lamentations, and to chant dirges

Nowadays, when we think of the word ‘maps’ we tend to think of the digital variety.  As in:  I’ll look that up in Google Maps.  Or:  I’ll put the address in Waze and I’ll find it.  We don’t think much of the paper kind of map, the kind you spread out on the table and study to find the places that matter to you.

Well, I’m studying for a skipper’s license here in Israel.  And one of the tests that the Ministry of Transport insists that candidates pass, is a test in chart navigation. (In the maritime world, maps are referred to as ‘charts.’)  So, the other night, I came home from class with a rolled-up chart of the Israeli coast and spread it out on the dining room table.  And Clara watched me, and asked:  What’s that??!  (Okay, I’m kidding…she knows what a map is!  But she was surprised to see it, and said:  What, you can’t use GPS??!)

Well, no; we can’t!  We have to learn the conventional way of finding our way in coastal waters.  We’re studying bearings and courses and winds and currents, and especially how to read all the symbols on a chart that show you where you are.  Someday, you’ll be out there on the water, and the GPS will fail.  So you have to learn to use a nautical chart, the seaman’s version of a road map, to find your way.

It reminds me of how we ‘find our way’ in Jewish terms.  In a sense, we have a road map:  Torah.  And I use here the word ‘Torah’ in its broadest sense:  the totality of the Jewish tradition, including the Holy Scriptures, the prescriptions of the Rabbis, and the many layers of exculpatory commentary on the whole thing.  It all, collectively, serves to enable us to find our way in our ongoing encounter with the Holy One.

And just as we have a set of symbols on a map or a nautical chart, which helps us to understand the information presented therein, Torah provides a rich menu of symbols that help us to understand the information contained therein.  And important among those symbols, is the annual cycles of calendar observances that help us to understand and contextualize the lessons that Torah has to teach us.

It is important to be regularly reminded of important facts and wisdom that we’ve already been taught.  That’s the whole purpose behind the book of Deuteronomy, Devarim, which we begin reading this Shabbat in the Jewish world.  As you probably know, the Written Torah consists of five books, thus the sobriquet Five Books of Moses, or Humash in Hebrew.  Well, guess what?  The fifth of the five books, Deuteronomy, is basically a repetition of what the previous four books taught us.  Its form is a series of valedictory sermons that Moses, Moshe Rabbeinu, delivered to the People Israel as he prepared to hand over the mantle of leadership to Joshua Bin Nun, before Moses’ own death.  The name Deuteronomy, is Greek for ‘second telling.’  The Torah has its own way of showing us that it is not enough to learn something once.  It must be repeated, in different terms that help us to ‘get’ it.

These Three Weeks of Preparation, which began with the fast of 17 Tammuz (2 weeks ago) and end with the fast of the Ninth of Av (next week) are a way for us to remember, and learn from, the experience of the ancient Israelites.  It’s not just that first the Babylonians, and later the Romans, destroyed the Holy Temple on the Ninth of Av in two widely separated years of history.  Rather, the aligning of these events challenges us to understand why these destructions, and other disasters in Jewish history, happened.  And a contributing factor – a major contributing factor – in each event, was disunity among the Jewish people.  When I say ‘disunity,’ I don’t mean simple disagreement.  Rather, I mean the kind of deep and complete fealty to doctrine over brotherhood, that causes one Jew to think of another Jew as The Other, as an enemy of the Jewish people.  Unfortunately, one sees more than hints of this mindset even today among Jews, in particularly during the last few weeks as the Rabbinate here in Israel has sought to narrow the definition of who is a Jew and whose concerns are legitimate.  It is perhaps for just such a time, that we find ourselves once more confronted with the Three Weeks and the lesson of the danger of Jewish disunity.